It’s been years since I began reading Michelle Hodkin’s Mara Dyer Trilogy. I remember cuddling up to the first book while on a long trip through India and not being able to wait for the second book. I remember finally getting my hands on the second book in the series and devouring it, disappointed only by not having the third one to immediately turn to, especially following that cliffhanger ending. So finishing book three left me . . . well, mildly disappointed may be the best descriptor there.
That’s not to say that there aren’t some wild twists and turns, or that the trilogy doesn’t do a fair job of keeping the audience engaged with the characters and wondering what’s to come. Is Noah still alive? Did the voodoo guy really live a double life as a professor? Are the parents of these teens all seriously going to just believe them?
No, it’s not a terrible ending to the trilogy, it’s just that it’s sort of a ho-hum kind of ending. Yes, there’s a revelation about Mara and Noah and Jamie, but I actually found that, by the time it was made, I didn’t really care. And yes, the lovers are reunited, but they’re each of them maybe all of 17. And Mara’s (seriously–I couldn’t make this up!) a pretty unremorseful serial killer. And her apparently best friend, Jamie? He’s using Jedi mind powers to control others, though it’s a bit unclear what the long-term implications will be for him (throughout the story there are suggestions that he could be hurting himself, or might possibly lose control of these powers, or could possibly even lead to his undoing). Noah’s apparently suicidal, and has been all his life. His dad’s . . . well, I’ll just leave good spoilers where they lie.
In trying myself to write a book, I can’t begin to fathom the challenge that a writer must face in creating a series out of a book. On the one hand, it has to be exhilarating: you’ve created a world, a cast of characters, a series of events that your readership relies on you alone to explain and make clear. But then you get the not-so-great, too: trying to create 1000+ pages that are intriguing, convincing, true to each character and real enough to keep readers reading. These challenges are where I felt that this book tripped up–there are just way too many unanswered questions/ inconsistencies/weirdly nonsensical plot twists, and the whole thing just sort of ended with what sounded (in my head) like a whoopie cushion deflating.
What I Liked About It:
1. Specifically, this book certainly kept the surprises coming! There’s not a chance of predicting even half of the things that occur in it, and I felt like that was a breath of fresh air from some of the far more predictable reads I’ve been wading through lately.
2. It’s partially set in New York City. 🙂
3. We get more of Jamie in it, and I think that’s a plus. He’s largely been treated as a side character throughout the series, but he’s probably the most interesting personality that the author created. Also, Mara actually has a female friend she interacts with, kind of, which is nice. Until it’s not.
4. We are provided, at the very least, moderate closure on Mara’s situation and, through a series of narrative flashbacks, we get a (somewhat) clearer picture of the genealogical why and how Mara ended up the way she did, and in the position she’s in.
5. The author does provide some hints as to what might happen with this cast of characters going forward.
What I Didn’t Particularly Like: (Warning–spoilers)
1. I listened to the Audible version of this book and found myself repeatedly tuning out. That in itself might not be a huge problem (could be my fault, after all!), but I had to keep going back and relistening not just because I’d realize after the fact that I’d just missed a chunk and had no idea what the characters were, but because I had no clue how they got there. And, even after I did relisten, I still often found myself lost.
2. Although the series itself has dealt with a number of unbelievable/semi-believable events, characters, histories, etc, I really found this last book just too far out there. I’m fairly certain my reading list–even just that on this blog!–supports me when I say that I really don’t have a problem suspending disbelief, generally speaking. I do, however, have to feel some tendril of reality in what I’m reading, and there were points in this story when I was ready to just turn the book off altogether as a result of it’s seemingly ridiculously far-fetched nature.
3. While previously in the series I had found myself very much rooting for Mara and Noah, I found their romance strange, dark, and sad in this book. (And really, really, really overdone–holy crap, WHY is Mara’s only concern, while trying to break herself and her friends out of a mental hospital, learning whether Noah’s alive or not??? I get that he was very important to her, but the whole firsg half of the book took things from a somewhat mature and loving relationship to obsessive scary weirdness!) Indeed, by the end, I found myself hoping–for both their sakes–that they wouldn’t end up together; I hoped instead that they would each be able to move on with their individual lives and find better matches, respectively.
4. Did I mention that Mara’s a pretty scary serial killer? I know she’s our protagonist and all, and that she’s dealing with some pretty messed up stuff, but I’m still having some difficulty wanting to root for someone who’s demonstrating pretty textbook sociopathic/psychopathic tendencies. Also, she cuts out an eyeball and carries it around. Just saying.
5. Whatever happened to Stella? I kept kind of expecting her to show up again towards the end, but basically she just peaces out about 2/3 of the way through the book and that’s it.
6. I understand that Jamie used his mind tricks to convince the three teens’ parents to allow them to take off on their “adventure camp” excuse. However, I had a tremendous amount of difficulty understanding how Mara’s very protective, very involved and very active parents would just happen to allow Danny, Mara’s slightly older brother, to take off to another part of the country by himself for an unspecified period of time with an unclear series of schools to visit without checking in on him regularly and without at least one of them chaperoning him. Especially with all their concern about Mara (who they now believe to be safely locked away in a mental treatment facility), one would think they’d be extra concerned about their other kids. Apparently not.
7. The implication of the story and it’s events seem to shift and morph over the course of the three books. While the first and even the second books seemed to place a paranormal/supernatural emphasis on the events in Mara’s life, they also really pushed the idea of how Mara was repeatedly framed for the horrific events she was tied to. (Suicide? Not her! Murder? No way! Obviously she was framed!) However, this book ups the ante of horrific Mara acts, though she seems completely unwilling to even consider that her actions were beyond what was appropriate; indeed, even beyond what could be argued as necessary. And then we get the big twist, which Mara herself confirms several times at the end of the book: they’re teens with super powers. Hmmm. I really didn’t see the ability to kill at will to be a super power (just ask any serial murderer. . . .) but even beyond that definitional technicality, methinks Ms. Hodkins was reading too much Divergent, Hunger Games and Harry Potter (all three of which are referenced in the book) and allowed these too much influence over her own series. In other words, I felt like we lost our way part way through the woods.
8. The love scene between Mara and Noah is, um, far fetched, to say the least? I mean, really?
9. In the beginning of the series, I actually felt that this was a great step forward in addressing mental health in YA Lit–not because it was completely realistic, but because it brought it into the conversational forefront. By the end of this book, I actually felt that it was a set back. What a lesson to teach: if you act messed up and mentally ill and someone concerned about you calls you out on it, clearly it must be that you’re a teen with latent superpowers that are causing deaths and injuries left and right. Which would then make it unreasonable for you to be secured away from the general public . . . right?
10. There are three or four minors involved in a legal altercation involving police questioning and requiring Jamie to call on his incredibly convenient lawyer cousin to help them. . . but no parents are to be called and notified as to what’s happening to their mental hospital escapee kids? Really?
11. I must be stupid, but even after hearing the explanation about why Mara must die, why Noah wants to die, and who they are, etc, etc, I still have no idea what caused it. Supposedly their conditions are based on a genetic anomaly, but then I don’t see the connection of how killing one would affect the genetics of the other? I don’t know. I listened to this explanation a couple of times and couldn’t figure it out.
12. Why is the entire first 2/3 of the book Mara, Jamie and Stella driving around? What purpose did that really serve? Why wasn’t there more information/answers that they acquired in the Horizons holding facility? (And what the heck was the point of Mara getting Jude’s watch????)
13. So if Mara’s not her real name, what is her real name? And why aren’t we told? And why does it even matter?
14. I thought Noah was amazing in the first two books. In this book, he became an annoyingly self-absorbed frustration. I’m not sure what was even to be gained from him as a character. And, if not choosing Mara would potentially save the world, I have some difficulty feeling the romance here. That’s quite a large expense–the cost of the entire world–to stay with her, and it seems insurmountably selfish.
15. I kept waiting for some clear connection between the narrative flashbacks to Mara’s grandmother’s life and Mara’s life presently, but I felt that this was a place where the author really failed to rise to the challenge. A clear connection would have underlined the genetic cycle theme that seemed to be sweeping throughout the story, but this just added to the confusion.
16. I was super excited that action was occurring in the NYC subway tunnels!. . . that is, until the only “action” was Noah’s creepy dad “explaining” shit that didn’t make any sense. I still have no real idea why Mara was being held/possibly killed if the treatments were working; I have no clue why Noah’s dad made this big deal about keeping Mara and Noah away from each other, then bringing them together. . . in a subway tunnel, for some reason?; I am still quite unclear as to why Jude was there; I have no clue how both Noah and Mara came back from the dead, and kind of think the story would have been better if at least one of them would have remained dead.
Overall:
The series is decent, but the first book’s the real kicker. The second book starts heading off in new and different directions, but is still pretty engaging. This last book? Hm. I’d be tempted to skip it and just read the Wikipedia summary.
Anyone else out there have a chance to read this series? Thoughts?
The Alpha and the Omega: The Endless Ramblings of a YA Lit Lover 